Have I changed?" asks (rhetorically) the man once known forbleeding profusely. He boasts a Beverly Hills salon haircut(given by Ted, the dude with the blue fingernails), and hechomps on a thick stogie as he sits with a glass of wine infront of him, sushi on his plate, at a corner table in L.A.'sCigar Bar, an exclusive spot that doesn't usually attract peoplewho used to bleed profusely for a living. "I guess everyonechanges a little bit."

What was it, 15 years ago that Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini, thespunky kid from Youngstown, Ohio, in those tight Sasson trunks,won over boxing populists with a face-first approach? For morethan two years he was the WBA lightweight champion. Has Mancinichanged?

To start, he isn't even Ray (Boom Boom) anymore. He's Raymond,thank you very much, and you can drop the Boom Boom. As for theblood--well, forget the blood. "People ask me if I still wannafight," says Ray...uh...mond. "Are they crazy? Are they nuts?I'm just glad I can still spell fight."

For the record, he can. It's F-I-G-H-T or, more accurately,N-E-V-E-R A-G-A-I-N. Recently, the 37-year-old Mancini says, hewas offered the chance to return to the ring with a three-bout,$7.5 million deal that would allow him to pick his opponents."The guy said, 'Ray, it's all rock-and-roll today,'" recallsMancini. "People don't pay for the fight, they pay for theperformer. I mean, it's stupid. Right now my life is good. I'vegot a wonderful wife, I've got three wonderful kids. Plus, I'vegot my title shot. My real title shot."

Mancini is, in fact, preparing for the biggest opportunity ofhis life, a starring movie role. "Even people who don't know toomuch," he says, "think this is the perfect film for me. They saythis is my chance."

On top of his wavy brown hair, he wears a black cap that readsbody and soul. Those words come out of his mouth every fifth orsixth sentence. "Did I tell you about Body and Soul? Let's getsome lunch. Roy Jones really impressed me last night. My babiesare the pride of my life. Body and Soul is my biggest chance,you know. Body and Soul. Body and Soul. Body and Soul."

It is the name of a movie, the 1947 classic starring JohnGarfield and Lilli Palmer. The story is about a boxer from asmall town in Ohio who gets seduced by the bright lights of LasVegas. He leaves home to pursue a championship, but along theway he encounters the dark side of sport. Charlie Davis, thefilm's main character, could be a young Ray Mancini: The way hetalks. The way he boxes.

"I've never been more drawn to a character," says Mancini, whohas been in L.A. for nearly 13 years, putting in his time payingdues and scratching for parts. Two years ago he purchased therights to the film, and he is starring in the remake, which heis also producing. Hollywood heavyweights Rod Steiger and JoeMontegna are in the cast. "I mean, this is what I was born for,"says Mancini. "It's not just me playing a boxer. This is acharacter with substance and complexities and trials. It's theperfect opportunity--my chance to show something."

That's more important to Mancini than to many former fighters.He retired from the ring at 23, his mind intact but his legacyunclear. Although he was among the most popular fighters of the1980s, he is known most for the 1982 bout in which he dealt hisopponent, Duk Koo Kim of South Korea, fatal head injuries. It'sa shame, really. Mancini could fight. He won the WBA title at21, a gift to his father, Lenny Mancini, whose own dreams ofboxing glory were ruined by a back injury he suffered during atour of military duty in Vietnam. Ray was a stylishfighter--dartin' and movin', stickin' and jabbin'. He was ashowman. The ladies loved him. The traditionalists (read: whitecrusties) ate him up. "For a long time," Mancini says, "boxingwas everything to me. It was my life. Problem is, once you winthe championship, everything changes. You're not fighting to winit anymore. You're just fighting"--he pauses--"to fight."

As he speaks, Mancini awkwardly maneuvers his truck through thetight streets of Beverly Hills, driving with one hand,illustrating his conversation with the other. His words comesuper-duper fast. At just 5'6", he doesn't look much like abrawler. Carmen, his wife of nine years, says, "Ray is abeautiful man--like a model."

Fourteen years ago, when he lost his title (and a good deal ofshredded skin) to Livingstone Bramble, Mancini saw the light."Let's see," he says with a laugh, "in boxing, it's all pain. Inacting, I don't get hit, and if something goes wrong, it's'Cut!' and do it again. What's the question?"

Right before the first Bramble bout, in 1984, Mancini hadauditioned to play himself in the TV movie Heart of a Champion:The Ray Mancini Story. Acting was nothing serious to himthen--more like, Well, I'm gonna be in the area. Why not give ita shot? So he met with the film's producers and read a few linesfrom the script. "My agent," recalls Mancini, "he told me theydidn't think I could do it. It's a major role, I'd never acted,blah blah blah. So I went into a room with these guys, and theyhand me a piece of paper. Action--I read my lines. They tell meto do it again, so I do it again. They ask for it one more time.So I do it again. They said, 'Hey, you can really do this. Youcan act.' Well, I wasn't really acting. I mean, I lived it. Butthey offered me the role, and I was really interested. It wassomething that truly appealed to me." The beating from Bramble,however, awaited, and Mancini turned down the acting job. "MaybeI should've grabbed the part instead," he says, looking back atthe fight in which he lost his title.

After losing to Bramble again in 1985, he decided to give actingthe nod, though he twice made comeback attempts, bothunsuccessful. In '89 he lost in 12 rounds to Hector (Macho)Camacho in the WBO junior welterweight title fight, and threeyears later he suffered a seventh-round KO by Greg Haugen. Thatjust reinforced his decision to concentrate on acting. Sincethen, Mancini has devoted himself to being a thespian. Hisroles, in small-budget movies and on television, have beenwide-ranging and mostly forgettable, but his performances haveheld up quite well. "He wasn't intimidated at all," says MichaelBadalucco, who costarred with Mancini five years ago in TheSearch for One-Eye Jimmy, a dark comedy. "Ray was verycharismatic in that movie. There's something charming about himthat comes across. He has a natural warmness."

The problem is, producers and casting agents who hear the nameRay Mancini can't always let go of the Boom Boom. Sure, theysay, we have someone you can play. How about...yourself?

Six years ago Mancini formed Boom Boom Productions, "because,"he says, "it's no fun waiting for calls." He paid MGM somewherein the high five figures for the rights to Body and Soul andhired a well-known screenwriter, Sam Henry Kass, to update thestory. "There are things Ray can do and things he can't do,"says Kass, who wrote One-Eye Jimmy as well as Conversations withthe Mob, an off-Broadway play in which Mancini performed sevenyears ago. "He's not the most polished or refined actor in theworld. He's probably not going to have the lead role in Titanicor something of that nature. But there's something about Ray asa boxer and now as an actor that you believe in."

Filming on the remake started in the spring, mostly in Reno.Mancini the producer hopes the movie will be in theaters acrossthe country this fall. Mancini the star of the film says this ishis title shot. If his history holds sway, he'll come out awinner.

COLOR PHOTO: JAN SONNENMAIR [Ray Mancini during shooting of movie Body and Soul]COLOR PHOTO: MANNY MILLAN NO TITLE ROLE, NO TITLE Mancini turned down the lead in his own TV biopic before losing to Bramble in '84 and '85 (above). [Ray Mancini boxing Livingstone Bramble]

"In acting I don't get hit, and if something goes wrong, it's'Cut!' and do it again."